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July 12, 2017

Cats in Boxes Quilt - Meow Collection - Camelot Fabrics

This one is sure to appeal to my fellow cat lovers! My love
for my lil’ guy knows no bounds and quilting with these adorable kitties
staring back at me was super fun!

Camelot Fabrics’ latest fabric line called the Meow Collection is just purrfect for the feline lover. And it’s heading to your local quilt
shop January 2018!

The line has a great mix of whimsical and geometric prints
which is great for sewn accessories and quilty projects alike. It’s such a fun
modern fabric line! And I just love the black and white palette with the pop of
turquoise.

And I love how the quilt pattern, designed by Cinzia Allocca, really features the individual prints by framing them in floating boxes!

Can’t you see this baby quilt looking perfect in a nursery?!
And I just love that the colourway is gender neutral – perfect for a baby
shower gift when the sex is unknown 😉

And making this even more suitable as a gift idea is the
fact that it comes together really quickly. The only heads up I would give is to take your time when piecing the main panel. Even though I had it all laid out on my design wall (details on how to build your own available here), I still managed to sew a couple of them with the wrong orientation. So take an extra minute to double check so that you avoid having to whip out your seam ripper!

I would also make sure to think through how you cut your
background fabric. Direction is key here and you wouldn’t want to snip into
your yardage only to realize you cut it the wrong way. Thankfully I didn’t make
that mistake!!

There are quite a few top quilting options you could go for.
I was going to quilt a chevron pattern, but when I plotted my lines with a Clover Hera Marker I wasn’t loving the outcome. So, I opted
for some good ol’ straight line quilting. Which, in the end, the lines running
through the floating squares adds a cute touch. Plus, I just love the texture
straight line quilting gives. Free motion quilting (FMQ) would be another great
option. I just haven’t mastered that technique yet and didn’t want to do a
trial run on a quilt heading to Quilt Market 😉

The backing that was selected is super fun too and seeing
the pop of light turquoise from the top stitching continues the theme of black,
white and turquoise. Trust Aurifil to have the perfect matching thread in the
colour Light Turquoise in 40wt!

And great news, the quilt pattern and the required fabrics will be available as a quilt kit in early 2018!!

With some fabric leftover, I decided to also make this sweet
little quilted placemat for my lil’ sewing companion’s food bowl. He’s a messy
little eater that one! I thought some cute quilty goodness to catch all the
spills would be perfect! Adds a kitty touch to his corner in the kitchen.
Instead of tossing a bunch of paper towels, now I’ll be able to toss it in the
washing machine 😊 Yay, for the environment too!

Since this mini was staying here, I decided to try a few
techniques out on her. First up was the
quilting. I do have a love for straight line quilting and couldn’t resist
adding some really tight straight line clusters. They add a nice quilty
cushiony feeling to the placemat. It also gave me the chance to see how much
this impacts the overall size of the quilt, which is a lot!

Next up was the binding. I’ve been meaning to give machine
binding a go for awhile, but always shied away on my main quilts. I figured
it’s a mini, what’s the worst that can happen 😉 I will say this for machine binding, it’s
nice and speedy! I do love the speed. But I’m not a huge fan of the stitching
line it leaves on the back. I’ll have to explore different approaches to see if
I can improve on that.

Lil’ Pips seems to approve of his new quilted placemat 😉

Thank you to Suzanne and the lovely gang over at Camelot Fabrics for having me join in on the fun of spring Quilt Market prep!!

I love the colours of this collection - and those kitties really are adorable. The pattern really does a great job showcasing the fabrics too. And I love your little placemats! My fur babies also are messy eaters and I use the very first small quilt I made as a placemat for them. :-)